Summary Notes for Trip

It's Wednesday, October 12 and we've been home for 1 day.  Here are some summary notes of our visit to Barcelona and France. 

Barcelona

We really enjoyed our visits to the Gaudi architectural treasures and the Modernisme architecture in Barcelona that is so uniquely Catalunya.   

The tapas bars were a great adventure.  Food was good everywhere except for one bad dining experience we had.  The restaurant was rated in the bottom 10% of 1,800 restaurants in Barcelona.  Of course, we didn’t know this until we looked it up on www.tripadvisor.com after a terrible meal.  But, that was the only bad dining experience on the entire trip.   

We got used to eating at 9:00pm or later and not getting to bed until after midnight.  What a sudden switch when we got to France.    

Not much else in Barcelona besides Gaudi, the architecture and shopping.  The beaches are supposedly great but we didn’t see them.  The metro and bus system works fine and gets you most everywhere.  We used it every day. 

France

Our visit to France, including our 2,000 kilometer drive from Provence to Dijon through the many country roads (and toll roads), small villages and towns was packed with pastoral countrysides, agriculture, vineyards and a lot of scenery.  However, the French are the French.  So here are the notes. 

French menus are mostly in French.  Only occasionally will you see English included. 

Water is not served with any meal.  All restaurants do sell bottled liters of Evian, Vittel or other brands of water for €5.50-€6.0 per bottle ($7.33-$8.00).  Big rip-off but you have little choice other than to drink the local water.  You can buy a 1.5 liter of Evian in a large plastic bottle at any petrol station on the highway for €1.6 ($2.13) but you can’t bring your own water into the restaurant.  At least we didn’t see people doing it.    

Restaurants and cafes serve bread but you always have to ask for butter.  It is not normally served automatically with the bread or rolls.  They all brought us butter 

It seems to be quite OK to bring your dog into the restaurant with you.  We had dogs next to us twice in three days during our recent journey in France (once in Chamonix and once in Beaune).  And, these were very nice restaurants. 

For bedding, you get a bottom sheet and a duvet.  That’s it.  No top sheet in between.  It’s certainly warm enough but it really makes you wonder if they really change the duvet covers between guests.  In the nicer hotels, I’m OK, but in the really cheap ones, I say again, it makes me wonder. 

For room rates, €110 or so gets you a basic room.  Small, clean and comfortable and shower only.  In Avignon, our room rate was €85.  This hotel is #1 on www.tripadvisor.com and with Rick Steves but again, very basic.  In Chamonix, we paid €110 and we had a wonderful small basic room with a deck.  In both Avignon and Chamonix, we had wonderful owners who were most helpful.  In Beaune, again €110 and very, very basic.  This was a room in the Ibis hotel chain.  Double bed (two twin mattresses together), chair, small table for computer, small closet with no door, a shower (no tub) and two skimpy bath towels.   Very clean but not too much investment in this room. 

Only one of the hotels in which we stayed included breakfast with their room rate.  So much for the “bed and breakfast” notion.  Yes, most did have breakfast but you paid extra for it.  Costs for breakfast ranged from €6.50-€14 ($8.66-$18.66).  These are continental breakfasts that include coffee, rolls and some pastry.  No bacon, ham or eggs.  In Barcelona, we had breakfast in a very nice bar for about €20-€25 for both of us.  The breakfast in our hotel was more expensive.  (Note that “Bar” in Barcelona is almost a synonym for café.  Many serve breakfast in the morning and tapas in the afternoon/evening/late night). 

The whole blasted country closes from 11:00am to 2:00pm.  Stores close.  The cafes only seem to serve coffee, wine, egg dishes, crepe dishes and pastries.  The McDonalds that you come across are packed.  Wonder why. 

You don’t get eggs for breakfast.  Even McDonald’s doesn’t have any breakfast items on their menu except coffee, rolls and pastry. 

Although we only ate at McDonald’s one time, they do have the Le M burger.  Really neat name.  Also, they use French cheese and Dijon mustard on their hamburgers.  What an improvement. 

Food is expensive in France.  We averaged at about $100/day until we reached our Hilton hotel in Paris where we could eat in the Executive Club for free.  You can only eat those lunch meat sandwiches so long.  They’re very good in some places but you’re in France.    

By all means, buy the Paris museum pass if you intend to visit Versailles and other museums.  You can buy it in advance and have it sent to you before you depart for Europe.  A 2-day pass is 35Euro.  A 4-day pass is 50Euro.  There is no 3-day pass.  It’s really worth it in terms of cost and the shorter lines.  Pass holders can enter through a separate line which walks right past the long ticket lines.  At some locations, the security line and not the ticket line will hold you up.   

Throughout France, we noticed that there were literally no American-made cars.  We did see a very few European-model Fords and Chevrolets.  Even worse, we saw absolutely no hybrids.  Not one Toyota Prius did we see.  What a shock for a Californian.  The primary cars that we saw everywhere in France were made in France – Peugeot, Citroen and Renault.  The most popular foreign car appeared to be VW.  And, not the VW beetle either.  Very few of those.  Our rental car was a VW Passat. 

About a third of our 2,000 kilometers in the car were on toll roads.  They are reportedly some of the most expensive in Europe.  I haven’t finished the calculations yet but it seemed to run about €0.07 per kilometer.  On one long drive of about 200 kilometers, we paid €14.90 ($19.96). 


A GPS with European maps is really essential.  Our Garmin Nuvi worked just great and only had us turning right off of a bridge into a river twice.  Just use common sense. 


Highway and road signage in France is exceptional.  It's really good and informative. 

Finally, in Paris, the metro works great.  We used it often.  Our issue was with the stairs.  Stairs everywhere.  A typical metro run that included 1 train change could involve 150-200 stairs up and down.  2 train changes could increase that total to almost 300 stairs up and down.  I counted them.  Some RER stations have some escalators but usually not to all levels.  The best metro station we found was the Madeleine stop.  Escalators and elevators that worked.  Great shopping at the Madeleine stop as well.